- Why do psychologists use scientific method to study human behavior?
- Because intuition and common sense are often completely wrong. Intuition and common sense are limited where as the scientific method is self-correcting.
- Explain the steps a researcher would go through when using scientific method.
- The researcher would consider a topic, develop a theory, create a hypothesis, and finally conduct research.
- What is a case study? When would it be appropriate to use? What are the pros and cons?
- A case study involves a psychologist studying one person in great detail.
- It would be appropriate to use a case study:
- to learn things that are true of everyone.
- to describe a rare phenomenon.
- to provide stories that help illustrate a point.
- Pros & Cons
- Con: The case study might not be representative in some way.
- Con: Case studies cannot be used to test theories or treatments.
- Con: Case studies only rely on the research of one psychologist.
- Pro: A case study may allow for future research to be conducted.
- Pro: A psychologist can learn a lot of information from studying one subject.
- Pro: Case study can provide clear and concrete examples of psychological phenomenons.
- What is a survey? When would it be appropriate to use? What are the pros and cons?
- A survey asks people to provide their opinion about a variety of different topics, or to report their own actual behavior.
- Pros & Cons
- Con: The survey is only accurate when they involve a random sample.
- Con: What people say is often very different from what they do.
- Con: Survey's provide minimal information.
- Pro: Does not take a lot of time.
- Pro:
- What is naturalistic observation? When would it be appropriate to use? What are the pros and cons?
- Naturalistic observation involves watching and recording the behaviors of animals or people in their natural environment. The goal is to describe the behavior of the animal or person with his/her presence having an effect on those behaviors. Naturalistic observation can be used to explore many types of research questions.
- Pros & Cons
- Con: Very specific questions can not be answered
- Con: The researcher needs to be as unobtrusive as possible.
- Pro: Can research a topic first hand.
- What is laboratory observation? When would it be appropriate to use? What are the pros and cons?
- Laboratory observation is when participants are brought into a lab and they are observed in whatever setting the researcher has created. It would be appropriate to use when the researcher wanted to create their own environment to conduct a study.
- Pros & Cons
- Pro: There is more control in this situation
- Pro: Irrelevant variables can be controlled
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